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Erik Fiske
"''What sort of sick bastard came up with that idea? It wasn’t enough for those sadistic bastards up in the Capitol to simply pit the Districts against each other and watch our children die. Now we had to participate in their games, present lambs up for the slaughter." - Erik Fiske '''Erik Fiske '''was the male tribute for District Eleven in Bring Them to Their Knees. He was reaped as part of the 25th annual Hunger Games, the First Quarter Quell. After an intense and emotionally scarring battle, Sade slew Erik through the abdomen after he had sung District Eleven's Banned song. Erik managed to stay alive long enough for him to talk to Jet Matthews, asking him to avenge Bianca by hunting down his former ally. He was written by NicKenny. History Erik was born on the 7th anniversary of the end of the rebellion, June 13th. His father was Malcolm Fiske, a local schoolteacher, who had served as a medic for the rebels during the rebellion against the Capitol. His mother was one Sarah Fiske (neé Thatcher), the daughter of a barley farmer, who lost her father and three of her brothers during the rebellion. It was during the rebellion, while at her father's bedside, as he lay dying of shrapnel wounds after the Capitol bombed the distillery area of District Eleven, that Malcolm and Sarah met. Malcolm was the young medic tending the dying Thresh Thatcher, who had become quite a well known leader within the rebellion, and the old man's dying words were "Take care of my daughter for me." Malcolm brought food to Sarah and her mother after her father's death, as they no longer recieved the "soldier's family" rations, having to search for food by themselves in a district that was slowly starving to death, due to the Capitol having torched most of the fields and granaries with napalm bombs. After the end of the war the two quickly got married, possibly because the Capitol were searching down the relatives of those who had led the rebels, and the name "Thatcher" would have been quite high up on their list. Official marriage documentation was rare in a district where the vast majority of the population couldn't read, so when Sarah took on Malcolm's surname her past was put behind her, keeping her safe. That was not to say the two didn't love each other. Though their marriage was originally for safety reasons, they grew to love each other more than many couples whose marriage had been of the more traditional nature. Three years later Sarah gave birth to a child; a girl they names Rose. Unfortunately Rose was born with a lung problem, something that was common with the generation born after the war, which was mainly attributed to the varous gases and toxins, not to mention the napalm fumes, that still hung over the district after the war had ended. She died just over a year later. Erik was born roughly two years after, and proved to be a strong, healthy child. He grew up to be strong, working in the orchards throughout his childhood, where he gained a love of climbing trees, and smart, studying in his father's schoolhouse, learning to read and write, to count, and the minute pieces of history the Capitol allowed teachers in the district to teach. Unfortunately, after a favourite student of Malcolm's was reaped while Erik was thirteen, Malcolm began to grow angrier and angrier, realising that he wouldn't be able to protect his son from the Hunger Games. He began to speak out against the Capitol, and drew a small following, and began to plan another rebellion. Tragically, the local Peacekeepers got wind of Malcolm's plans, and, under the claim that certain books in the schoolhouse were "liable to cause a breach of the peace" and contained "inflammatory opinions", they set up a huge bonfire by the school, filled it up with books, and were about to set fire to them when Malcolm appeared, angrily shouting for them to stop. The Head of the Peacekeepers, Ryne Artois, only laughed, and continued to do so until Malcolm called him a "Capitol whore", amongst other things. The Head Peacekeeper, enraged, backhanded him across the face, which resulted in Malcolm punching him, breaking his nose. Malcolm was then seized by Peacekeepers, and tossed onto the now burning bonfire by Artois, to the words: ''"This is what happens when you oppose the Capitol." After this, Erik's mother was seized by Peackeepers, and sent to the Capitol to be an Avox, after being raped by several of the Peacekeepers. Erik never knew about any of this, and assumed his mother had been executed. He himself was taken in by Damien Cooper, one of the leaders of the local Scarecrows, a Peacekeeper auxiliary force charged with protecting the crops, and patrolling the fields, keeping the animals of the district safe from predators and the fields safe from threats such a rabbits, birds and deer. The Reaping On the day of the Reaping Erik goes back to his old home, which has fallen slightly into disrepair but, as the ownership remains in his name, has not been moved into by others. He walks around, reminiscing on old times and looks through his father's collection of books, remembering Malcolm's last moments. He leaves his bow by the door inside the hall, as he has done every Reaping since he lost his parents, and slowly walks towards the Town Square for the Reaping itself. He joins a queue and presents himself to a Peacekeeper, who jabs his finger with a device, to test his blood as identification, and is told to continue through to the eighteen year old male's section. Erik is plagued by a sense of guilt as he remembers who he voted for as the female tribute, though this is forgotten for a moment to be replaced with hatred as Ryne Artois takes to the stage, replacing the mayor after his speech, handing the envelope containing the tributes' names to Vikus Heron, the District Eleven escort. He's shocked to hear "BIANCA NEVE" announced, as she was the very girl who he had voted for, and his sense of guilt becomes unbearable. He is then stunned further when his own name is announced as the district's male tribute, but his doubts are dispelled when he sees Ryne Artois standing behind the mayor, smirking in satisfaction. Erik is convinced, rightly, that Ryne has tampered with the results, rigging the vote so that Erik will be pitted into the Games. As Erik is taken away by Peacekeepers, he resolves to come back, and get his revenge on Artois. He meets with Damien and Adam, who are upset with his Reaping, but convinces them that he's happy to be going. Damien privately confers to him the belief that Artois rigged the vote, which Erik heartily agrees with. Damien then informs him that Artois' niece, Sade, was voted in as the female tribute for District Two. Erik is delighted to hear this, as he sees it as an opportunity to get his revenge on the man who murdered his father, but privately says to Damien that he doesn't expect to be coming back. In the Capitol Erik doesn't speak much on the train ride to the Capitol, ignoring his escorts, Vikus and Kendrick, and his district partner Bianca. During dinner Erik pigs out, stunned to see so much food in one place. After the meal he quickly leaves and goes to his room, not wanting to have to listen to his escorts twitter on about the wonders of the Capitol. When he hears Bianca scream he immediately rushes into the dining-car, holding Bianca back as a Peacekeeper executes an Avox in front of them. He carries Bianca away, trying to comfort her. The two share a moment of friendship, united for a brief moment by this tragedy, and Erik leaves, heading to his room, greatly troubled as he is unsure if he would ever be able to kill his district partner, even if it meant his own death. During the Chariot Rides, Erik is forced, by his stylist, Dora, to go out wearing nothing but a pair of underpants adorned with fake fruit. The sight of this cause Roulla Saney of District Four to choke, but she also notes that he's doing a good job hiding his embarrassment. During training, Erik steps into an argument between Sade and Anya Powers, helping Canicus to break up the fight, although he exchanges some dark words with Sade and some dark looks with Canicus, putting himself on Canicus' watch-list. He is later categorised by Lucian as a dangerous tribute along with Atalanta , Brennadon and Juniper , a group Lucian names the "Serpents". Erik becomes allies with Anya after breaking up her fight with Sade, seeing something in her that reminds him a little of himself. He trains hard, and is confident of his chances in the Arena. He begins to trust his escort Kendrick, who supplies him with tapes of the past twenty-four Games, helping Erik to look through them and plan for when the Games start. Everything seemed to be going to plan until, after a particularly intense training session, Erik and Kendrick return to their quaters for dinner, where Erik is greeted with a face from the past; namely, his mother Sarah, who had been made an Avox. Going mad with rage, Erik breaks his other escort, Kendrick's, nose, then throws the Peacekeeper from the train ride, who is attempting to restrain him, through the dinner-table, punching him twice in the face until unseen people grab him and he feels a needle prick his neck, then falling unconcious. He wakes up, locked inside his room, not sure whether or not what had just occurred was just an hallucination, until he notices the bloodstain on his token, his dorak. He wonders why his mother had been sent to their quarters, knowing that it couldn't have been a coincidence, before falling asleep. He reflects on the last few days while waiting for his Private Training Session before the Gamemakers, sizing up the other tributes as they go in, making some small talk with Bianca to pass the time, and is troubled when he realises that the night before had caused her to become afraid of him. He's irritated by Lucian, who stares at him constantly until Erik is finally called in. He demonstrates his capabilities with a sling, mace and finally a bow, finishing off his session by shooting ten moving dummies in the groin, causing some unease amongst the watching Gamemakers. As he leaves, he wishes Bianca good luck, but grimly wonders what sort of chance she'll have in the Arena. Before he leaves for his room, he makes an offer to Lucian, saying that if Lucian finds a way to take down the Careers, he'd be happy to ally with him, as Erik is determined to take down the Career pack. Erik scores an eight from his Private Session, the joint second-highest for a non-Career along with Londyn Aureole, losing out to Sean Armani who scored a ten. While the interviews are going on, Erik catches Anya's eye, who is troubled by their alliance, but understands the neccessity of it. During Erik's own interview, he stuns Juniper with his sheer size, something she only notices then and there. He visibly seethes during his entire interview, speaking either in short sentences or just one-word ones. Juniper briefly wonders if he's stupid, but quickly realises that he's struggling to keep himself in check, boiling with rage inside. Erik loses his pretense at a calm demeanor when he's asked about the Careers, sneering that they were no threat to him. He says his goodbyes to Bianca the next morning, reminding her to avoid the Cornucopia at all costs. As he makes his way to his Laucn room, he sees Anya and nods to her, reminding her of their alliance. He is outfitted in clothes that seemed to have come from an old war-vid, and wonders what sort of Arena would require this manner of clothing. He soon finds out. The Arena Erik quickly heads towards the Cornucopia, flying through obstacles until he finds himself crawling along the ground, underneath a barbed wire mesh, next to Juniper and Damian Blackwater. When they overcome this obstacle, aircraft swoop by overhead, causing Juniper and Damian to stop in their tracks, but Erik ignores them and continues running. Juniper is shot in the shoulder by the aircraft, leaving Erik and Damian charging towards the Cornucopia. Erik stops, allowing Damian to catch up, a sudden explosion putting him on edge. He warns Damian of the mine beneath his feet and both of them dive away, just as it explodes. The two beginning running through the minefield in front of them, and Erik is slashed along the shoulder by a piece of shrapnel. Damian is shot by someone in a watchtower and falls behind. Erik dodges a falling bomb, and ducks again as a piece of flying shrapnel is sent his way, which decapitates Alexis Spurling instead. After discovering that the Cornucopia is empty, he returns to the trenches, finding a stack of explosive materials and flares hidden away in a bunker. He takes a flare, igniting it, and leaves after fashioning a makeshift spear, picking his way through the trenches as night begins to fall, when he is seen, and avoided, by Lucian. He finds Anya soon after, making her a spear in order for her to protect herself while he goes and spies on the Career pack, watching from the trees as Jet Matthews tortures Bastion Estatika. Eventually he leaves, but on the way is trapped inside a giant cage, and is made to fight an army of burning mechanical scarecrows, who are attempting to set a mountain of hay bales alight. Erik realises that there is a weapon waiting for him at the top of the hay bales, and quickly makes his way up there, retrieving a Capitol-forged scythe. He uses it to defeat the scarecrows, but receives several injuries in return. He is stunned when the last remaining scarecrow speaks to him, and retriees its mask after killing it. He makes his way back to Anya, and they quickly move through the forest, trying to put as much space as possible between themselves and the Career pack. When they eventually stop for the night, Damian stumbles across their camp. After some pleading from Anya, Erik does his best to patch up Blackwater's wounds. Damian joins their alliance, and the three of them watch the recap of the day's death toll. Erik is stunned when he sees Bianca's face projected into the night's sky and he breaks down, destroyed by his guilt for both voting her in and for failing to protect her. Anya and Damian manage to calm him down, and he falls asleep remembering Bianca. Before he does this, however, he hears the voice of the scarecrow, and takes out the scarecrow's mask, staring into it's eyes as it speaks to him, promising revenge for Bianca's death. The three of them travel slowly through the forest the next day, held back by both Damian's injuries and Anya's hallucinations as she goes through alcohol-based withdrawal. They stop to make camp at Anya's insistence, although Erik is hesitant to agree, worried about the Careers. He later almost kills Anya with his scythe when she spooks him, clearly unsettled by Bianca's death and the events of the last two days. He reluctantly allows Anya to take over the watch, and falls asleep, only to be woken by Anya and Damian fighting. Filled with rage, he reprimands both of them, disgusted by their behaviour, and leaves them, believing that he'll be able to take the Careers out without them, shocking Anya and Damian. He later comes across Maeve Morghal, who offers him a place in an alliance with herself, Atalanta and Lucian, based on the concept of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, with Erik playing the role of Famine. When she finds him he is wearing the scarecrow's mask over his head, which appears to restrict his sight to some degree. Erik accepts her offer and they meet up with Lucian and Atalanta. Chapter Appearances Bring Them to Their Knees *Chapter 12 , "District Eleven: Scarecrows and Goodbyes". *Chapter 30 , "Drastic Plans, Drastic Actions". *Chapter 47 , "Fighting Scarecrows". Trivia *Erik's eyes are hazel, just like his father's. *His middle name is Harold. *His favourite colour is green. *He is fiercely proud of the Scarecrows, and is apt to explode if someone slights their name. *When he decides to kill someone he devotes his entire being towards that goal. As of yet only three people have made that list: Ryne Artois, his niece Sade, and Head Gamemaker Phoenix Snow. *Everyone in the Capitol, including the tributes, believe that Erik's name is spelled "Eric", much to his irritation. *Erik can remember the names of all of his fellow tributes barring Alaric Pakalin's, whose full name belies all attempts at memorizing. Category:Characters Category:District 11 Category:Tributes Category:Bring Them To Their Knees Category:The Four Horsemen Alliance Category:Deceased Characters